Curse of Chaos
by Ma petit
Summary: Tortall is in a war and a new generation of mages and magic was born. Please be kind and review this is one of my first stories


This is a story that I created by mixing a few ideas and books together. There is Briar who I kind of stole from the Circle of Magic and the powers, but it is all for the story. The other names come from Lord of The Rings and the Drangonlance Chronicles.

Enjoy

Curse of Chaos

Chapter 1

The young girl looked in horror at the bloody man storming at her. She saw the great, blood-dripping sword that he was swinging; the enormous horse the man was riding looked every bit as rough as its rider. Just when he was almost upon her, the girls' mother pulled her inside slamming the heavy door shut. Inside her father was coming to the door and the large axe firmly in his hands. The mother hugged her daughter and pulled her towards the kitchen where she gave the child a tight bundle bulging with the families' food. She got down on her knees and held her daughter close telling her where she is to go.

"Listen closely Cyradis, I want you to go through the forest and no matter what you hear don't come back…" her mothers words were cut off as the roof in the front started to burn down and collapse.

Cyradis was pushed through the back window and ran towards the forest, but before she even reached it, she heard a petrified scream of a woman. A smell of burning flesh reached her nostrils and she became violently sick.

Something nudged her with a cold nose, she looked up and saw the newborn colt was prancing nervously around her. Cyradis got up and slowly with the baby horse made her way to the dark and mysterious forest.

Outside the atmosphere was gloomy, as Briar slowly made his way back towards the castle gates.

"Who goes there?" asked the guard on duty.

Briar concentrated slightly and pushed the little wind up to the man.

"Oh, out late again Master Briar. My Lord Wyldon will not be pleased to find you here outside," warned the guard.

"We'll just have to make sure it stays that way," replied Briar

"Of you go now, " smiled the guard.

Briar trotted through the gates and made his way up the court path leading to the castle entrance. Instead of going to his room like a normal person, Briar gathered up his will of power to slowly rise up in the air. He loved that feeling, suddenly a bird flew at him and started to flap its wings in his face causing the young thief to lose his concentration and fall down to the ground. Briar started to gather his power again, but he was falling to fast. Just as he nearly hit the ground, something pulled him up again. He twisted around to see a long green vine drag him up to where the girls rooms were located, as he reached the window, a face of looked angrily at him.

"Have you any idea how worried we were. Lord Wyldon was furious enough to lock you up again. You are so lucky that we are your friends. Somehow the three of us were able to lower your punishment a bit," scolded Elbereth angrily.

Briar listened to this in patience; Elbereth has been his friend since the day she saved his life.

"Sorry," he replied automatically. Now here comes the yelling, he thought.

"Sorry, after all the trouble, I or we got through, after all the punishments we endured, after all the things we went through, all because you' Elbereths voice was quieting down, " wanted to have fun in the city. And all you have to say is sorry."

Briar looked at his sixteen-year old friend, her long, straight blondish hair was a mess around her face, it looked like she just got out of bed from a bad nights sleep. Her heart shaped face was angry, the girls piercing sapphire eyes gleamed furiously at him. She was rather tall, with a slim figure that was used to work at the palace. Her pink lips were drawn together in a tight line, Elbereths nightdress was all crumpled and the moonlight reflected on the light cotton material. Next to her stood a slightly smaller and younger girl. Gléowine was only two years younger than Briar and Elbereth, along with her twin brother Daeron, were between tall and medium height, both with light brown hair, longer for Gléowine, shorter for Daeron, both were healthy looking, with liquid brown eyes and faces more eager to smile than frown. The eyes that were usually both do kind, were now glaring daggers at him.

If stares could kill he would most definitely be dead at that moment. There was a knock at the door on the other side and Lord Wyldons voice could be heard coming from behind the wall. It was unmistakable deep, booming and exceptionally loud.

"Daeron! OPEN THE DOOR!" the door stayed shut in the boys' room. Briar's handsome face lost its colour as he heard the training masters voice.

"Pull me up, please," Briar pleaded with his friend and little sister.

"You have to learn your lesson dear boy." Said Gléowine with a mysterious smile on her lips.

Lord Wyldon the training master of Tortall walked across from the boys' room to the two sorceresses quarters and knocked loudly on the door. If he found Briar out again the young mage would be in a lot of trouble. There was a muffled noise and the slowly swung open.

"My lord, isn't it a bit late for a lesson, we were in the middle of something…" Gléowine told the lord rather sternly. Lord Wyldon couldn't help to notice her skin texture. Being the normal pink shade, the girl skin had what looked like water flowing in her body. A loud yell stopped the lord from turning around, without a word he opened the door and with a look of pure shock, roared with laughter at the sight of Briar.

The young wind mage was forced into a pink, frilly dress and the girls placed lots of face paint on him also. He looked like a court doll all dressed up and nowhere to go. It was something he hard to endure if he wished to stay out of trouble with the Lord Wyldon.

"I see that you are having quite a lot of fun here,' the man laughed, "but you do know that it is rather late. I do believe that you shall be in bed at this particular hour, wouldn't you say Mage Briar?"

Briar could have died of embarrassment, but it was better than the punishment and long lecture he would get from his lord if caught. The girls did give him punishment enough. He would become a laughing stock at the palace when the guards with Lord Wyldon gave the servants the funny tale. Everyone knows that gossip travels the fastest through the maids of the palace.

'Yes my Lord, right away,' declared the thief, 'thank you ladies for such a wonderful and charming evening. I really do appreciate your attempt at helping me understand court life better.' With a stiff bow he was gone.

'Goodnight my Lord,' snapped the girls' and slammed the door in the lord's astonished face. They fell asleep laughing.

The rough cloth blanket was pulled of her cold body. They never let her have any type of rest, it was always work and work. Shadow couldn't remember how she got here, one night she was in some kind of a forest the next in a stone cell. Since that day her life went from bad to worse. She was always starving always in pain. The king of Scanra was a very cruel and power hungry man. His newest plan was to conquer Tortall, one of the most powerful kingdoms. And to do so he needed Shadow.

A soldier was killed by her when she was here in the beginning. A mage noticed her raw power when she killed the man who was beating her. The mage reported her to the king, who in turn locked her up and forced her to obey him with her powers. Shadow hated herself and the kind of damage she could do. Nothing good ever came out of her. Her area of magic was death. Only about a year ago Shadow found out her second skill. Life. She could bring dead animal back to life as well as plants and trees. She studied and practiced in secret. Everyday till sunset Shadow was forced to use her magic, leaving her feeling nearly dead.

She got up and was slapped by the maid.

'Look at this mess! You little ungrateful brat after all the trouble we go through to give you such a good housing and this is how you repay us!' screamed the servant. Shadow realized that she must be new. In the court the sorceress had an important spot among the king's mages.

She slowly reached inside herself for the tiny black ball of power. Unleashing it at the woman slowly, she let the now terrified servant feel the grip of death. Shadow after a moment pulled the magic back inside her and the maid fled. She wouldn't expect to see her for at least a year or so.

She started to dress, putting on a plain, black dress and a dark black cloak around her shoulders, on her neck she hand the black opal necklace. The choker was of black material with a single black opal cast in the middle. Opals were used to store power among mages and were very hard to obtain. Even though she was considered to be not worthy of being at court, Shadow had a good reputation of killing with ease. She learned how to do it and not regret it. Many battles were won by her hand and skill. She was a very valuable possession to the king.

Like all the other mages at the palace Shadow was no exception to the endless lessons to be unbeatable, apart from them she also had extra things to do, to be in total control of '_shadow and light'_ as she called it. She finally understood that her gift was both terrible as well as a miracle.

Shadow set out towards the king's war chamber to advice him about the upcoming battle against Tortall. She entered the room. It was filled with portraits of the long dead monarchs that ruled before her time. She did a low bow towards the warlords before taking her seat at the king's left hand side. No one sat next to her, as was the custom of the court sorceresses. Before the king managed to even mutter a single word, a messenger boy ran in breathlessly did the most clumsy bow and cried loudly.

' My good king and lady Shadow, I was sent by the spy mage Raistkin. He had found out about the mysterious powers of King Jonathan and what he found out will most dreadfully interfere with our plans!'

The king stood up and was looking at the boy with a look wanting further explanation. One of the lords gave the boy wine before he could continue speaking.

'Apart from our wonderful mage in Scanra, there are _four_ other mages with the same amount of power in Tortall. Raistkin was lucky enough to find out what kind of power they possessed. My King there are five elements of raw power. Tortall has the wind, water, fire and nature or the power of earth. The last element is that of Life and Death, which Shadow is the bearer of.' The boy took a long breath and gave more polite bow.

Well what did you think? Please REVIEW! Thank you to all those who review.

Ma petit


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